Over just three months there has been a big shake-up in Australia’s top-10 most-trusted brands, according to the latest Roy Morgan Net Trust Score survey.
Data collected in October shows that Aldi continues to be Australia’s most trusted brand, with Bunnings, Qantas and the ABC also holding their position in the top-10.
However, between Roy Morgan’s July and October surveys there were big moves in the rankings. Car insurance group NRMA fell from 5th to 7th place, Bendigo Bank slid from 7th to 9th place, and Samsung, Myer, RACQ and IGA fell out of the top-10 altogether. This change co-incides with the highly publicised The Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services.
Kmart, ING, Toyota and Target all saw their Net Trust Scores improve enough to secure a place in the October top-10.
A brand’s Net Trust Score (NTS) is generated by asking respondents, unprompted, to name brands they trust and brands they distrust. Subtracting a brand’s distrust score from its trust score reveals its NTS.
Distrust the biggest concern
While trust is essential in the era of fake-news, distrust is the real risk to a sustainable future for companies operating in Australia. Brands with large distrust scores include the big-four banks, AMP, Telstra, AGL and Coles.
At a sector-wide levels, Net Trust Scores were lowest in Banking, Media and Mining & Petroleum, and highest in Retail, Consumer Products and Supermarkets.
Michele Levine, Roy Morgan CEO, said: “Trust is vital to the success of any business, but the key message of the Roy Morgan Net Trust Score survey is that growing distrust can be a disaster, leading to customer churn, loss of market share and in some cases a long slide into oblivion.
“Understanding what drives trust with customers – and just as importantly with potential customers – is essential to brands wishing to improve their Net Trust Score.
“Trust is not just a ‘marketing’ or ‘comms’ issue – it goes to the heart of corporate culture and governance for every company.
“We have seen time and again companies making bad business decisions that don’t take into account the way people will feel about an action or policy. Whether it’s Facebook, the big banks or our major utilities, directors and their management teams need to think about the social drivers of trust and distrust – ethics, believability, integrity and transparency."